Hey guys. Super Excited to get this! gamer For sure but got this game mainly for the minis! Waited a year just for this to kickstart, and now the end is near!!

Been painting for awhile and decided to take the plunge and get an Airbrush, but i wanted to know what is a good affordable one. I never done it so i dont want to get some super expensive one but one i could grow with for a couple years and if i need upgrade. Thanks For any Advice or suggestions!!

I bought my first airbrush last week so i can kinda relate. The one i started with is the iwata neo. Now important to remember is; Iwata is a respected company for airbrushs, but the neo one isn't built by iwata instead it was built for iwata by a chinese company. Thats why its rather cheap, but still is a nice built airbrush with iwatas 5 year warranty. For the compressor the only advice i can give you is; Get one with an airtank, the reason is that the airflow is more steady instead of pulsing which could have an impact on the paint job. I bought the Sparmax TC-610H and i'm very happy with it.

Rogland uses high precision airbrushes to paint the Miniatures. Steinbeck airbrushes are what the team use. Also be aware that you need a ventilated area that is air conditioned or dehumidified. It will take a lot of set up to use.

I bought my first airbrush last week so i can kinda relate. The one i started with is the iwata neo. Now important to remember is; Iwata is a respected company for airbrushs, but the neo one isn't built by iwata instead it was built for iwata by a chinese company. Thats why its rather cheap, but still is a nice built airbrush with iwatas 5 year warranty. For the compressor the only advice i can give you is; Get one with an airtank, the reason is that the airflow is more steady instead of pulsing which could have an impact on the paint job. I bought the Sparmax TC-610H and i'm very happy with it.

Hope that helps a bit and happy painting.

This is all good advice.

As someone who is just now getting the hang of using an airbrush, I'll warn you: You will spend more time cleaning the blasted thing than painting with it. Almost all problems with airbrushing boil down to paint consistency and improper cleaning. Watch several videos on cleaning airbrushes. Buy a large bottle of windex with the spray nozzle (makes it really easy to fill up the airbrush for cleaning). You will be cleaning it out after every color, and possibly in the middle of colors. If you are planning to spray primer or lacquer, you'll need to clean even better.

Buy a mask. Not a little dust mask, one of the $20 respirators. Even if you are using acrylic paint, you don't want to be breathing it in. If using acrylic paint, you don't necessarily need a fully ventilated area, but it's not a bad idea. I set up a little cover for my bathroom fan so that the airbrush is pointed towards the cover, and goes out the fan.

Airbrushing has a bigger learning curve than you might think. It takes a while to figure out paint consistency and air pressure, and until you have that right, you're going to be a bit frustrated. Paint too thick will clog it up, paint too thin will run off the model. Air too high and the paint will run, air too low and the paint will clog. You need to adjust your air pressure for the distance you're painting. At first you can leave it higher and spray a little bit further away, which will help you get base coats and zenithal lighting effects. Just doing this with your base coat will look really nice, and as you get better you can start using masking and moving in closer to paint specific areas.

Here's a model done up with the airbrush. I did a pair of them, it took me about 2 hours, which included 4 shades of blue, 3 shades for the nose, 2 shades for the hands, and a final white highlight. If they didn't need masking when doing the face/hands, it probably would have been about an hour and a half. Of that time, only about 20 minutes was spent spraying, the rest was cleaning and making sure everything was correct.

Definitely, being able to do nice transitions with a brush is important. I feel like the airbrush allows me to get nice smooth transitions on large areas a lot easier than with a brush, and in less time. For smaller details, it's not really very helpful at all.

For painting bulk figures (like a bunch of space marines), larger figures (like some of the ones from Zombicide and the Others), or for figures where one color/feature takes up most of the figure (like a cloak or large cape, or uniform clothing), you can do color blends and zenith lighting effects much easier with an airbrush. Just prime black, spray a dark color from slightly above the figure, than a lighter color from higher up, and than the highlight from straight above. You'll get a perfect lighting effect without needing a ton of effort or thinking.